Souvenir Program 

141st anniversary 




J' MAY 20 1775 ^; 



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CHAPLO 

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1775 — 1916 



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CHARLOTTE, N. C, MAY 18-19-20, 1916 




DEDICATED TO THE SIGNERS 

OF THE 

cTMECKLENBURG DECLARATION 

OF INDEPENDENCE 

THEIR ANCESTORS 

AND TO THE 

CITY OF CHARLOTTE 

THEIR BIRTHPLACE AND HOME 



THE KOHINOOKd 



fT^ HE original drawing of the Mecklenburg Decla- 
ration of Independence was burned many years 
ago with the dwelling of John McKnitt Alexan- 
der, the Secretary of the Convention, but sev- 
eral copies were extant at the time and were read and 
attested by many who were active in this epoch of 
American history. In honor of the event the State 
of North Carolina has. enacted the 20th day of May as 
a legal holiday, which is observed with befitting cere- 
monies every year. Such historians and jurists as 
Martin, Jones, Foote, Hawkes, Wheeler, Gaston and 
Wm. A. Graham have established the authenticity not 
only by indirect testimony, but by the strongest of 
human evidence — the affidavitsof men who were pres- 
ent and participated in the memorable meeting. A 
great lawyer has said that a destroyed deed could be 
put upon record with testimony not half as strong as 
that adduced in the proofs of the authenticity of this 
document. George W. Pendleton, of Ohio, and ex- 
Senator Bayard of Delaware, made addresses of great 
research and power at some of our 20th of May cele- 
brations, and David B. Hill, of New York, after scan- 
ning all the pages of authentic records, declared that 
the Mecklenburg Declaration was the Kohinoor of 
gems in America's crown. The granite and bronze 
will perpetuate the name of each signer, while pilgrims 
year after year will repair to this shrine and render 
homage of admiration to the memory of those patriots 
who first accentuated the spirit of freedom in the New 
World. 



1775 



1916 



141st anniversary 



Mecklenburg Declaration 
OF Independence 




CHARLOTTE, N. G. 

MAY 18-19-20, 1916 



III g-n 






cTWECKLENBURG MONUMENT 



r#-|-. HE Mecklenburg Monument 
I i Association was incorporated 
^^ in the City of Charlotte on 
^S£ ' the 20th day of May, 1890, 
as the title indicates, for the erection 
of a monument to commemorate the 
names of the Signers of the Mecl<len- 
burg Declaration of Independence. 
It was decided by the building com- 
mittee to select granite for the monu- 
ment because the plainness and dura 
bility of the material was in keeping 
with the lives and characters of those 
whose memories it was designed to 
perpetuate. The monument is of the 
obelisk design, and stands forty feet 
in height, upon a base nine feet 
square. The names, mottoes and let- 
tering are raised upon plates of cop- 
per bronze. Above the inscription, 
"To the Signers of the Mecklenburg 
Declaration of Independence" on the 
front plate is a bronze representation 
of a hornet's nest — Charlotte's em- 
blem — and upon the body of the nest 
are suggestive words, "Let us alone." 
The monument stands in front of the 
new County Court House, upon 
ground donated for the purpose by 
the County Commissioners, and is 
enclosed by a suitable iron railing. 




MECKLENBURG MONUMENT 



%^ 






zA GREAT DAY IN 1775 



OT QUITE ten years before the battle of Alamance a new 
county had been set off from a part of Anson County in West- 
r^SJl ern North Carolina. Where two stage roads crossed, one 
^^^ going east and west, the other north and south, a little town 
was founded. It was called Charlottetown, after the wife of King 
George III. The county was called Mecklenburg, as that was the 
home of the Princess Charlotte. 

This part of the country had been settled by a very staunch people 
called Scotch-Irish. They served God faithfully, planted schools, and 
were law-abiding, but they loved liberty better than life. 

In the town of Charlotte, under huge oaks and spreading elms, 
they opened the first college in North Carolina. They called it 




OLD MECKLENBURG COUNT> 



COURT HOUSE 



Queen's Museum, al.so in honor of Queen Charlotte, hoping thus to 
please the King. Afterward, when they had determined to stand for 
their rights against King George, they changed the name of their 
college to Liberty Hall. 

In 1775 Charlotte was a village of about twenty houses. In the 
middle of the square, where the two stage roads crossed, stood the 
courthouse shown above. It was a log building, raised high above the 
ground on wood blocks. Two flights of steps led up from the outside, 
one on either side of the building. 

In this courthouse, on the 19th of May, 1775, the General Com 



L 



mittee chosen by the people of Mecklenburg to look after their rights, 
was called together by Colonel Thomas Polk to talk over the sad state 
of the colony. 

Many of the men of Mecklenburg had been with the Regulators 
at the battle of Alamance. Since that time, for four long, weary 
years, matters had been growing steadily worse in the colony. There 
was no law in North Carolina. All her courts were closed. The 
Assembly which made the laws was forbidden to meet by the gov- 
ernor. The brave men of Mecklenburg felt that they could no longer 
suffer their rights to be thus trampled on. 

Something must be done, and done at once. So on this 19th of 
May not only was the little courthouse filled to overflowing, but a vast 
crowd filled the open square around it. Here were gathered people 
from all parts of the county. Old and young were there, and men of 
every calling. Here were the colonial magistrate, in broadcloth coat 
and knee-breeches ; the farmer in homespun made by his thrifty wife 
or mother; the hunter in buckskin leggins and moccasins; the minis- 
ter in sombre black 

Even the women were here, some of them with their babies in 
their arms. Never before had the people of Mecklenburg been so 
aroused. Papers were read, telling of the wrongs that were being 
done to the people of the colony, and speeches were made by several 
of the Presbyterian preachers present. 

As if to add fuel to the flames, a man on horse-back dashed up, 
and read in a loud voice from a handbill which he carried. It was a 
story of bloodshed and death from the distant colony of Massachu- 
setts, telling how the farmers of Lexington, just one month before, 
had been cruelly shot down by British soldiers, and how eighty-eight 
of them were killed in the fight which followed. The story flew from 
lip to liji. The fire in their hearts leaped higher and higher. Indig- 
nation ran riot. 

Then with one voice the people shouted, "Let us be independent! 
IjCt us declare our independence, and defend it with our lives and 
fortunes!" 

But the rule of England was not to be lightly thrown off. Every 
point must be talked over. So these earnest men, without food or 
sleep, sat in the courthouse all night long, and discussed the matter. 
Their excitement grew greater as the night wore on. The next morn- 
ing the people gathered again in the square — men, women, and 
children. They could not wait quietly at home for news from the 
Convention. This was to them a matter of life and death. 



"I. Resolved, That whosoever directly, or indirectly, abets, or 
in any way, form, or manner countenances the invasion of our rights, 
as attempted by the Parliament of Great Britain, is an enemy to this 
country, to America, and to the rights of men. 

"II. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg County, do 
hereby dissolve the political bonds which have connected us with the 
mother country, and absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British 
Crown, abjuring all political connection with a nation that has wanton- 
ly trampled on our rights and liberties and inhumanly shed innocent 
blood of Americans at Lexington and Concord. 

"III. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and 
independent people ; that we are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign 
and self-governing people under the pov^^er of God and the General 
Congress ; the maintenance of which independence we solemnly pledge 
to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our 
most sacred honor. 



At noon, five resolutions drawn up by Dr. Ephraim Brevard, 
were read to the Convention and adopted. These resolves declared 
the people of Mecklenburg to be free and independent, no longer ruled 
by the British Crown. To the cause of independence they pledged 
"their lives, their fortunes, and their most sacred honor." 

Colonel Thomas Polk then read the "resolves" from the court- 
house steps to the excited crowd. 

"Three cheers!" shouted some one in the crowd. Three rousing ji 
cheers rang out from the vast throng. Hats were thrown up. The 
people were wild with delight at having thrown off the yoke of sub- 
': jection to Great Britain. 

■ On the day on which the committee met, the first intelligence of 

the action at Lexington, in Massachusetts, on the 19th of April, was 
i;! received in Charlotte; this intelligence produced the most decisive 
i; efi'ect. A large concourse of people had assembled to witness the 
>: proceedings of the committee. The speakers addressed their dis- 
; I courses to them as well as to the committee, and those who were not 
jlj convinced by their reasoning were influenced by their feelings, and all 
cried out : "Let us be independent ! Let us declare our independence 
! and defend it with our lives and fortunes !" 

ji: A committee was appointed to draw up resolutions. This com- 

ji mittee was composed of the men who had planned the whole proceed- 
i ings, and who had already prepared the resolutions which it was 
jlj intended should be submitted to the general committee. Dr. Ephraim 
1|) Brevard had drawn up the resolutions some time before and now 
;{! reported them to the committee, with amendments, as follows: 



"IV. Resolved, That we hereby ordain and adopt as rules of 
conduct all and each of our former laws, and that the Crown of Great 
Britain cannot be considered hereafter as holding any rights, privi- 
leges, or immunities among us. 

"V. Resolved, That all officers, both civil and military, in this 
county be entitled to exercise the same powers and authorities as 
heretofore; that every member of this delegation shall henceforth be 
a civil officer and exercise the powers of a justice of the peace, issue 
process, hear and determine controversies according to law, preserve 
peace, union and harmony in the county, and use every exertion to 
spread the love of liberty and country until a more general and better 
organized system of government be established. 

"VI. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted 
by express to the President of the Continental Congress, assembled 
in Philadelphia, and be laid before that body." 

These resolutions were unanimously adopted and subscribed to 
by the delegates. 

James Jack, to be the bearer of the resolutions to the President 
of Congress and directed to deliver copies of them to the delegates 
in Congress from North Carolina. The President returned a polite 
answer to the address which accompanied the resolutions, in which he 
highly approved of the measures adopted by the delegates of Mecklen- 
burg, but deemed the subject of the resolutions premature to be laid 
before Congress. Messrs. Caswell, Hooper and Hewes (the North 
Carolina members) forwarded a joint letter, in which they compli- 
mented the people of Mecklenburg for their zeal in the common cause, 
and recommended to them the strict observance of good order; that 
the time would soon come when the whole continent would follow their 
example. 

On the day that the resolutions were adopted by the delegates in 
Charlotte, they were read aloud to the people who had assembled in 
town, and proclaimed amidst the shouts and huzzas, as expressing the 
feeling and determination of all present. 

When Captain Jack reached Salisbury, on his way to Phila- 
delphia, the general coui't was sitting and Mr. Kennon, an attorney- 
at-law, who had assisted in the proceedings of the delegates at Char- 
lotte, was there in Salisbury. At the request of the judges, Mr. Ken- 
non read the resolutions aloud in open court, to a large concourse of 
people; they were listened to with attention and approved by all 
present. 

The delegates at Charlotte, being empowered to adopt such 
measures as in their opinion would best promote the common cause, 



established a variety of regulations for managing the concerns of the 
county. Courts of justice were held under the direction of the dele- 
gates. For some months these courts were held at Charlotte; but 
for the convenience of the people (for at that time Cabarrus formed 
liart of Mecklenburg) , two other places were selected, and the courts 
were held at each in rotation. The delegates appointed a committee of 
tlieir body who were called "a committee of safety," and they were 
empowered to e.xamine all persons brought before them charged with 
being inimical to the common cause, and to send militia into the 
neighboring counties to arrest suspected persons. In the exercise of 
this power, the committee sent into Lincoln and Rowan counties and 
had a number of persons arrested and brought before them. These 
who manifested penitence for their Toryism, and took an oath to sup- 
port the cause of liberty and of the country, were discharged. Others 
were sent under guard into South Carolina for safe keeping. Th' 
meeting of the delegates at Charlotte and the proceedings which grew 
out of the meeting, produced the zeal and unanimity for which the 
people of Mecklenburg were distinguished during the whole of the 
Revolutionary war. They became united as a band of brothers whose 
confidence in each other and the cause which they were sworn to sup- 
port, was never shaken, in the worst of times. 

Never was there such a great day in North Carolina, and never 
did the people of any of the American colonies do a braver deed. 

Thus, on the 20th of May, 177.5, was the Mecklenburg Declaration 
of Independence made. 




CHARLOTTE FIRE DEPARTMENT 



REPRESENTATIVE NORTH CAROLINIANS 




HON. LEE S. OVERMAN 




HON. JOSEPHUS DANIELS 



cs 

(?*•*» **»^ •• 



pj*«W <*»v 



M 






HON. F. M. SIMMONS 



HON. E. Y. WEE 



THE SOUTH BACK YONDER^ 



I ¥ I ER VAST potentialities, grand history, salubrious climate, and 
* * ' just laws, are challenging the attention of the world, and the 
bravery of her men and the beauty of her women are known 
to the nations of earth. 
Washington Irving tells us, that "So charming was the plain of 
Granad, under the Moors, so refreshing its fountains and so luxuriant 
its gardens, watered by the windings of the Zeneil, so opulent its 
valleys where grew in profusion the orange and pomegranate, where 
grapes hung in rich clusters about the peasant's cottage, and where 
the groves were musical with the songs of the nightingale, so great 




THE COTTO^ 



IN ITS INFANC\ 



the prosperity and happiness, where all had once been but a barren 
waste, that the inhabitants imagined that Heaven was situated in that 
part of the sky which overhung the plain." 

This is a perfect picture of the South, if we will add hereto, 
"education and the smokestack," as she has become, since she stag- 
gered — 

"Out from the valley of death and tears. 
Hardly the survivors have sprung to their feet. 
When the nations are thrilled by the clarion words 
Coming up from the South. Excelsior. Forward." 



She is the most American part of America. The current of her 
citizenship is unpolluted by foreign "isms" and if the time ever comes, 
predicted by Lord McCaulay, when our institutions will be strained 
to the breaking point, then may the Republic rely upon that spirit of 
the South that wrote Alamance, and Moore's Creek, and Cowpens, and 
Kings Mountain, and Guilford Court House on the scroll of fame. 
The flag of the Republic can never droop, come what may, so long as 
the Southern manhood survives, for. the Stars and Bars bequeathed 
Southern valor forever to the defense of the Stars and Stripes. 

Behold the South of today! Have we not "the mason's chisel 
chirping all over the land"? Do not new enterprises of all kinds 
start in crowds, "like larks rise and darken the air in winter time"? 
Can we not see, "in our banks, piles of glittering gold, amiable as 
Hesperian fruit; heaps of silver, shimmering lil^e the sheen of the 
sun-kissed hillocks on the Jungfrau's brow, and stacks of bills, which 
seem to whisper a symphony as they rustle"? Now this is not hyper- 
bole — this is not exaggeration. 

Ten years ago it was still a question open to discussion as to 
whether the South could successfully compete with New England in 
the manufacture of cotton goods. This question has been forever 
settled; conditions have been reversed, and it is now a question 
whether New England can compete with the South. 




CHARLOTE PARK SCENERY 



cAS WE WERE THEN 

VT I ORTH and South Carolina, up to the year 1729, constituted 
i^ 1 one colony, called Carolina. The first settlement was made 
in 1663, at Edenton at the mouth of Chowan river, and was 
called the Albemarle Colony. Those who live over our South- 
ern border who have carped at certain patriotic claims of Mecklenburg", 
should remember that this Albemarle settlement of Carolina had set 
up its government and was in legislative 
session two years before Charleston was 
even started by William Sayle in 1670. 
Both colonies, however, were ever afire 
with the spirit of liberty, and both rejected, 
by rebellion, the "Fundamental Constitu- 
tions," or "Grand Model" of John Locke, 
because they breathed an aristocratic and 
monarchial spirit despised by the colonists. 
Virginia had her "Pocahontas and 
Partick Henry" ; Massachusetts her "Ply- 
mouth Rock and Pilgrim Fathers"; Con- 
necticut, her "Charter Oak", but it was 
on the shores of the Old North State tha' 
Virginia Dare first saw the light, the first 
white child born in America, and forever 
by her side, through the haze of our time, 
we see the grand figure of Sir Walter Ral- 
eigh, whose name is worn as a crown by 
Ralaigh, the Capital of North Carolina. 

History shows how the colonies be- 
came the Republic— the Republic the 
greatest power on earth. That the South 
is the most favored section of the Repub- 
lic and we confidentially assert that 

North Carolina is the best part of the South. Her history is illumi- 
nous with heroic deeds. She has climate to sell. Every vegetable 
or agricultural product to be found in the temperate zone grows luxu- 
riantly in her soil. Her wheat is unexcelled and takes rank with the 
best, and no State in the Union can surpass or even compare with her 
numerous valuable and beautiful minerals that are found in the bosom 
of her hills and mountains. 




SOME CHARLOTTE HISTORY 



HARLOTTE was chartered by the Colonial Legislature in the 
year 1772. It is therefore one of the old towns of the South, 
and has a history. Its first inhabitants were of Scotch-Irish 
descent. 

Charlotte, the capital of Mecklen- 
burg County, got its name from Queen 
Charlotte of Mecklenburg, wife of 
George III. 

Its first great event was the meet- 
ing of representative men of Mecklen- 
burg and adjoining counties, and the 
adoption of the Mecklenburg Declara- 
tion of Independence of the British 
Crown, May 20th, 1775. The meeting 
was held in the Court House which 
stood on Independence Square, the spot 
being now marked by an iron plate with 
a suitable inscription. The same plate 
also commemorates a battle fought in 
the streets of the town, between a troop 
led by Lord Cornwallis himself and the 
Mecklenburg Militia in September or 
Cctober, 1780, of which event Lord 
Cornwallis wrote to the Earl of Dart- 
mouth saying that he got into a veri- 
table "hornet's nest," a name which 
has clung to the town to this day, the 
hornet's nest having become emblematic 
of this section. 

(Ither plates mark Cornwallis' 
Headquarters, commemorate a visit of Washington during his first 
Presidency and indicate the spot on which Jefferson Davis was stand- 
ing when he received the news of Abraham Lincoln's death. 

In Charlotte also was located the first educational institution in 
this portion of the South, chartered by the Legislature as the Queen's 
Museum, in 1771, and generally known as Queen's College. 

Charlotte of today is known as the "Queen City of the Carolinas," 
and is the center of the manufacturing development of the great 




WILLIAM ALLISON OWENS 



Elected 1861; Re 



Piedmont section of the Carolinas. Her growth has kept pace with 
this development. Her population in 1890, about 12,000; in 1900, 
23,800; now (estimated) 50,000. 

With a fertile soil, agriculture of an improved and varied char- 
acter, a genial climate with an average temperature of 59° and an 
elevation of 743 feet above tide water, the 
traveler for pleasure, the seeker for health, 
and the man of business will find Charlotte 
worthy of examination when casting about 
for a change. 

There is a book called, "Walks About 
London," but a man wishing to see Char- 
lotte, her splendid reaches of bitulithic and 
tarvia paved streets inviting him, would 
prefer a run about the city and her 
environs in one of her six hundred auto- 
mobiles. Continuing his ride, for him, 
history would roll back the curtains of 
the years, as he gazed upon the plate which 
marks the place where Cornwallis quar- 
tered and planned to crush the hornets, the 
Mecklenburg militia, that stung him so 
badly along East Avenue that he called 
Charlotte the "Hornet's Nest"; anon, our 
sightseer would feel his blood jump as he looked upon the spot where 
Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, stood when 
he received the shocking news that President Lincoln has been assassi- 
nated, and presently he would come to the memorial of George Wash- 
ington's visit to Charlotte, May 25, 1791. 

A breath of fresh air and a spin of a few miles, and our visitor 
seeing Charlotte might behold the monument which marks the birth- 
place of Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, the 
spot then being in Mecklenburg, now in Union County; and later, he 
might visit the scene where James Knox Polk, eleventh President of 
the United States, first saw the light — President Polk, who through 
Taylor and Scott planted "Old Glory" in triumph on the battlements 
of the Capital of the Montezumas and "whipped Mexico before break- 
fast." 

On returning to the city, our visitor would behold the great dome 
of Mecklenburg's splendid Court House, which marks the spot where 




once stood Queen's Museum, or Queen's College, the Genesis of higher 
prliieation in this section of the South. 

oTs ghtseer could gaze upon the building whe.. the PresKlent 
of the Confederacy had his headquarters; after the drama at Appo- 
1 tox the President and his cabinet were hurned southward and 
r the 20th day of April, 1865_eleven days after the sun-end r 
o?the army of Northern Virginia-the Confederate cabmet had is 
headquarters in the building now occupied by the Charlotte Dady 
Observer, and President Davis' private room was the office where Hon. 
J P Caldwell, former editor of the Observer, wrote those editorials 
whose wisdom, political acumen and conservatism had long since made 
this distinguished citizen known throughout the 

land. 

Strange is it not, of two great wars, one 

had its inspiration and beginning in Charlotte; 

the other, the dissolution of the Confederate 

cabinet, substantially its ending and grave? 
Cherished memories of the past constitute 

the moral force of nations. A great man once 

said, "A land without memories is a land with- 
out liberty." 

Veneration for the deed of their ancestors 

is kept ever present in the hearts of the citizens 

of Charlotte and the Queen City of the Carolinas 

holds to it as her crown jewel, the Mecklenburg 

Declaration of Independence. As the Branden- ! 

burg Gate with its car of victory stands at the 

entrance at the city of Berlin as an inspiration to the future genera 

tions so the citizens of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have 

placed the great iron tablet on Independence Square and have erecteu 

Zt monument in honor of the Signers of the Mecklenburg Declaia- 

tion of Independence. 

The citizens of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have nevei 
claimed that they were braver than other colonies, but they assert and 
establish beyond sane controversies the greater truth, that is to say. 
the patriots of Mecklenburg were the first to put into tormal declara- 
tion the colossal and nation-building ideas of separation from the 
Mother Country. It, was Patrick Henry's immortal ^'P^ech 'n the 
Virginia Assembly that fired the American hearts, and the blaze he 
kindled which had been smoldering under tyrannic aggression in old 
Mecklenburg burst forth here on the 20th day of May, 1775. 




CORNWALLIS' HEADQUARTERS 



GUEST OF HONORo 



-tf^^l 




THE OFFICIAL PROGRAM 



THURSDAY, MAY EIGHTEENTH 

9:00 A. M. 
BAND CONCERTS 

Kannapolis Band North Tryon and Fifth Streets 

Greater Charlotte Band South Tryon and Fourth Streets 

Metropolitan Shows Royal Italian Band West Trade Street 

10:00 A. M. 

LAKEWOOD OPENS— NATURE'S PA RK— WELL-STOCK ED ZOO OF WILD 

ANIMALS— BOATING— DANCING AND NUMEROUS OTHER ATTRACTIONS 

METROPOLITAN SHOWS OPEN WITH THREE FREE ACTS AND FIFTEEN 
HIGH-CLASS SHOWS 

ATHLETIC SPORTS— FIELD, TRACK AND BASEBALL. ASHEVILLE SCHOOL 
AND HORNER MILITARY SCHOOL, AT HORNER FIELD 

3:00 P. M. 
BAND CONCERTS 

Greater Charlotte Band East Trade and College Streets 

Kannapolis Band West Trade and Church Streets 

4:00 P. M. 
LEAGUE BASEBALL: GREENSBORO VS. CHARLOTTE AT WEARN FIELD 

9:00 P. M. 
PAYNE'S SPECTACULAR FIREWORKS AT WILMORE, SOUTH TRYON ST. 



FRIDAY, MAY NINETEENTH 

9:00 A. M. 
BAND CONCERTS 

Kannapolis Band North Tryon and Fifth Streets 

Greater Charlotte Band South Tryon and Fourth Streets 

Metropolitan Shows Royal Italian Band West Trade Street 

9:30 A. M. 

ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR CRAIG, OF NORTH CAROLINA, AND GOVERNOR 

MANNING, OF SOUTH CAROLINA, WITH THEIR STAFFS— SOUTH ERN 

DEPOT— FIRING GOVERNOR'S SALUTE OF 17 GUNS 

10:00 A. M. 

LAKEV/OOD OPENS— NATURE'S PARK— WELL STOCKED ZOO OF WILD 

ANIMALS, BOATING. DANCING AND NUMEROUS OTHER ATTRACTIONS 



2:00 P. M. 
ARRIVAL OF STATE TROOPS 

3:00 P. M. 
BAND CONCERTS 

Greater Charlotte Band East Trade and College Streets 

Kannapolis Band West Trade and Church Streets 



FRIDAY'S PROGRAM -CONTINUED 

3:30 TO 4:30 P. M. 
Concert by United States Marine Band At Grand Stand 

4:00 P. M. 
LEAGUE BASEBALL: GREENSBORO VS. CHARLOTTE AT WEARN FIELD 

5:30 P. M. 
REVIEWING OF TROOPS BY GOVERNOR CRAIG AT GRAND STAND 

8:30 P. M. 

ADDRESS ON MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDEPENDfcNCE BY DR. 

ARCHIBALD HENDERSON, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH 

CAROLINA. AT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ROOMS 

9:00 P. M. 
PAYNE'S SPECTACULAR FIREWORKS AT WILMORE, SOUTH TRYON ST. 

MILITARY BALL AT AUDITORIUM 
(Music by United States Marine Band) 



SATURDAY, MAY TWENTIETH 

9:00 A. M. 
FORMATION OF PARADE. SOUTH TRYON AND ADJOINING STREETS 

10:00 A. M. 

LAKEWOOD OPENS— NATURE'S PARK— WELL-STOCKED ZOO OF WILD 

ANIMALS. BOATING, DANCING AND NUMEROUS OTHER ATTRACTIONS 



PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON AND PARTY ARRIVES AT SOUTHERN 

STATION — FIRING OF PRESIDENT'S SALUTE OF 21 GUNS 

(Procession led by United States Marine Band) 

10:30 A. M. 
PRESIDENT WELCOMED BY MAYOR T. L. KIRKPATRICK AND CENTRAL 

COMMITTEE 

Reception to President Wilson and Party by Governors of North Carolina. South 

Carolina and Virginia, and Staffs, at Reviewing Stand 

11:00 A. M. 

REVIEWING OF TROOPS AND INDUSTRIAL PARADE BY PRESIDENT 

WILSON. GOVERNORS CRAIG. MANNING AND STEWART, AND 

MAYOR KIRKPATRICK AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS 



2:00 P. M. 

LUNCHEON TO PRESIDENT WILSON AND DISTINGUISHED GUESTS AT 

MANUFACTURERS' CLUB 

3:00 P. M. 
SHAM BATTLE, Dl LWORTH-M YE RS PARK 

3:30 TO 4:30 P. M. 
Concert by United States Marine Band At Grand Stand 



Some Public Buildings 



HARLOTTE'S public and semi- 
public buildings are in keeping 
with the size and progress of 
the place. The City Hall, lo- 
cated on North Tryon Street, houses 
the entire city government, and is ade- 
quate for at least several years to 
come. 

Among other buildings which are 
daily in use by the public, and which 
attract more than usual attention from 
the visitor, and are sources of pride to 
the resident, might be mentioned the 
Southern Manufacturers' Club. It is 
said that this is the most nearly per- 
fectly-appointed club house in the 
Southern States ; and Presidents of the 
Nation have expressed deep admiration 
for the appointments and arrange- 
ments. 

The Charlotte Y. M. C. A. build- 
ing is one of the most complete to be 
found in the country. Built by Char- 
lotte men, this building houses many 
young men, who are given the best 
environment to be obtained, and where 
they are kept apart from the contami- 
nating influences so often found in city 
life. The Y. W. C. A. building is one 
of the most complete to be found in the 
South. This building is beautifully 
situated on East Avenue in the fourth 
block from the square, and was also 
built by public subscription ; and stands 
as a monument to the teaching of 
higher ideals of man's duty. 

The Masonic Temple is located 
on South Tryon Street and is one 




twenty-three 



of the finest structures in the state and is in keeping with the spirit 
of progress which has dominated Charlotte in the past. This build- 
ing is the home of all Masonic bodies in the city. 

The City Hall is adequate for 
demand and is used by all depart- 
ments of the city government and in 
addition one large hall is turned over 
to the use of the Confederate veterans. 
Charlotte has outgrown her post- 
office and there is now in process of 
construction by the Government a 
new and more commodious one- 
quarter-million-dollar building. 

Charlotte's large Auditorium has 
a seating capacity of five thousand, 
is adequate to take care of a large 
number of conventions which are at- 
tracted to the city, and in addition ta 
this there are a number of store 
rooms and office rooms. One suite of 
these rooms is set apart for the use 
of the Associated Charities, which 
looks after the poor and needy of the 
city, thus reducing begging to a 
minimum. 




CHARLOTTE CITY SCHOOLS 

— JIARLOTTE has many features, but none more important than 
1 its schools. From the clays of the signing of the Mecklenburg 
^ Declaration of Independence— May 20, 1775— the people of 
t his community have sought and obtained an education. They 
have realized that their children must be better educated than their 
parents, and have continuously provided therefor. Within the uast 
few years a total of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars has been 
expended for new school buildings within this city, and several sec- 
tions which were not provided for as well as could be desired were 
put on a parity with the more favored parts of Charlotte, so that at 
this time people living in any part of the city have a high-grade school 
within easy distance of their homes. 

The Central High School and seven grammar schools take care of 
the white children, and three schools are provided for the colored 
children. During the present year the enrollment in the Charlotte 
schools is 6,981. Of these 4,770 are white, and 2,211 colored. 

The children are taught by a competent corps of instructors, 
totaling 153. 

The High School prepares boys for the Freshman class at the 
University of North Carolina, and girls for the Sophomore and Junior 
classes of the college for women. Prof. H. W. Walker, State Super- 
visor of High Schools, has credited the Charlotte High School with 
more Carnegie units than any other City High School in North Caro- 
lina In the present Freshman class at the University of North Caro- 
lina a Charlotte High School boy takes third rank in the same class. At 
Trinity College, a Charlotte High School boy has been recently made 
instructor in mathematics at Trinity Park High School. This same 
record continues through Wake Forest, the State Agricultural and 
Mechanical College for the boys, and through all the colleges for 
women in the state and section. 

The cooking department of the Charlotte High School is splendidly 
equipped, and the State High School inspector recently declared it to 
be the best he had seen in a High School. Cooking and sewing are 
taught by demonstration, and a commercial department, giving courses 
in bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting, has been added, and the 
High School has one of the best equipped manual training departments 
in the State. 

The city school authorities endorse the doctrine of a sound mind 



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in a sound body, and therefore encourage athletics. Football and 
baseball teams for the boys, and basketball for the girls, are under the 
supervision of a member of the faculty. 

The grammar school course in the Charlotte school covers seven 
years, and the High School course covers four years, making 
eleven years of high-grade training at the cost of the city. In the 
grammar schools, especial emphasis i.^ laid upon the thorough teach- 
ing of the essentials — reading, writing and arithmetic ; and proper 
attention is given drawing, music, and other courses. The city makes 
an appropriation annually to send one-third of the teaching force to 
the various summer schools, enabling the teachers to keep themselves 
well informed and fully abreast of the times. 

A continuation school for grades IV to X is taught during the 
summer for a period of two months. This enables pupils who have 
fallen beb.ind on one or two subjects on account of sickness or for other 
reasons, to make up the work and save a year. No charge is made for 
tuition. 

It is the aim of the superintendent and teachers of the city 
schools to make the public schools so good that the most wealthy a'' 
well as the poorest citizen will feel that his child is not getting the 
best unless he is sending him to the city schools. 

In addition to Charlotte's well equipped city schools she has 
special advantages in tlie institutions fiu- the higher education of our 
boys and girls. In the southeastern suliurbs of Charlotte is located 
two of the institutions of higher education. An examination will con- 
vince the most critical of the special fitness of Queen's College for those 
who are seeking educational advantages for their girls where the best 
possible management and the best corps of instructors are to he 
secured. 

Girls of the most ambitious Darents have attended this institution 
and have left with every accomplishment needed or desired. 

There was a time when higher education was expensive and was 
considered a luxury on account of having to send the boy away from 
home for college training and college education. Located right here 
in our midst is Horner's Military School, where the li')y can attend 
a high-class college and still remain under the home roof and home 
surroundings. This institution is located in a beautiful suburb .of 
Charlotte and is especially equip];ed for the educational advancement 
of the boy. 



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Financial Institutions 

r ^ \ HARLOTTE'S nine banks are 
i J^Ll '^'^0'^" wherever Charlotte peo- 
[8SII pie transact business — not as 
'^-^~?~ paragons of the financial world, 
but as safe and sound and conservative 
business institutions, where the needs of 
tlieir customers are looked after care- 
fully, and all courtesies consistent with 
sound banking are shown the public at 
large. The capital of the combined 
banks of Charlotte totals $2,250,00, with 
assets of over $14,000,000; and at the 
last call of the Comptroller of the Cur- 
rency, made for December 31, 1915, the 
deposits of the nine banks were shown 
to be $8,075,996.28, while the loans 
totaled $9,946,071.22. The surplus and 
profit accounts of the banks of this city 
on that date were $2,143,497.60. 

During the financial stringency in 
1907, the Charlotte institutions did not 
at any time fail to make payments of all 
accounts, and had the distinction of be- 
ing the only city between Richmond and 
Atlanta where this condition prevailed. 
The banking of Charlotte is character- 
ized by progressive conservatism, which 
is one of the basic principles of all busi- 
ness of this city. 

The picture shown here represent? 
one of Charlotte's modern fireproof sky- 
scrapers. This building is owned by 
the Commercial National Bank. It is 
this building together with the Realty 
Building owned by the Independence 
Trust Company as shown on another 
page in this program, that gives South 
Tryon Street and West Trade Street 
the appearance of Wall Street. 




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REALTY BUILDING 



TRANSPORTATION 



HARLOTTE is the most favored city in the 
Carolinas from transportation viewpoint. At 
this time there are four lines of railway, each 
SSS=== separate and distinct in ownership and 
operation. 

More than sixty passenger trains arrive and leave 
Charlotte within the day, and many people reside here 
for the reason that it is so easy to reach any and all sec- 
tions of the Southeast from here. 

What is true of the passenger service is also true 
of the freight service. Fast through freight service 
is maintained by two of the lines entering Charlotte, 
from the North and East, and from the South and 
West. This makes Charlotte an ideal distributing cen- 
ter. Prompt service, both passenger and freight, 
marks the operation of the railway lines serving this 
section, and this is one of the advantages Charlotte is 
offering, especially to traveling salesmen and manu- 
facturers. 

In keeping with the growth and to meet the 
demands of the progressive citizenship, the Seaboard 
and Norfolk-Southern Railroads have plans ready for 
the erection of a new and more commodious passenger 
station. It is understood that the plans of each one of 
these roads require an expenditure of one hundred 
thousand dollars. The Southern Railroad will spend 
about sixty-five thousand dollars in remodeling a new 
passenger station. This one fact emphasizes a rapid 
growth of the city and shows a willingness on the part 
of the railroads to meet the demands of the progressive 
citizenship in a growing city. 



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cTVlANUFACTURING 

HARLOTTE has one hundred and forty-five manufacturing 
plants, in addition to its cotton mills, of diversified products. 
Its cotton mills have an annual payroll of $1,820,000. Of the 
eig-ht hundred cotton mills situated in the South, four hun- 
dred are situated within a radius of one hundred miles of Charlotte, 
representing an investment of $300,000,000, giving employment to 
one hundred and fifty thousand operatives, with an annual payroll of 
$275,000,000. Charlotte is the center of the textile industry of the 
United States. There are several reasons for this. One is the pres- 
ence of the cheap and satisfactory power, and another is, sk'lled labor 
is at a price that the manufacturer can secure it. Another is the 
presence of raw material and excellent transportation facilities to the 
markets of the world. While Charlotte's chief manufacturing indus- 
try is cotton, there are a wide diversity of enterprises in this field, 
from piping which went into the construction of the subway through 
which speed the electric trains under the streets of New York to the 
handsome casket in which a multi-millionaire was buried recently. 
This is a long cry, but Charlotte supplied both. Only recently Char- 
lotte shipped to Petersburg an entire train load of agricultural imple- 
ments to be used by the Imperial Department of Agriculture of 
Russia. 

Mention might be made that it was due to the transportation 
advantages of Charlotte that brought to Charlote the Ford Automobile 
Assembling Plant. This plant assembles and turns out complete 
thirty automobiles every work day of eight hours, giving employment 
to a great many of our young men and pays good salaries. The man- 
agement, to meet the demands, are looking about with a view to 
doubling the size and capacity of the present plant. This is one of 
the many industries that have recently been added to Charlotte. This, 
together with the rubber tire manufacturing plant, makes this the 
distributing center for automob'les of this section of the country. 

Charlotte is the only town in the South where a cotton mill can 
be built from start to finish and furnish its own raw products from 
surrounding communities with which to operate on. 



CHARLOTTE'S HEALTH 

T IS STATED upon apparently good authority that the death 
rate of Charlotte is the lowest in the United States save one. 
There are no conditions about Charlotte which induce ill- 
^^=^ health. The sanitation of Charlotte adds to the health- 
fulness of the place to a wonderful degree. It is well-nigh impossible 
for illness to prevail where cleanliness abounds, and it is the pride and 
boast of the citizens of this city and her administration that it is most 
difficult to locate anywhere a city that presents a neater appearance. 
The Health Department of the city maintains a close watch over the 
people and every care is taken to prevent contamination. The milk 
and water supply is carefully guarded to see by this means that no ill- 
ness comes upon the citizens. With the most equable climate in the 
United States, it is but natural that Charlotte's health should be 
noticeable and proverbial. 

CHARLOTTE'S WATER SUPPLY 

The source and supply of water for a city is one of the most 
important features of community life, and in this particular Char- 
lotte is especially fortunate. At a cost of $786,000, the city has a 
water supply system which affords a capacity of ten million gallons 
daily, with a reservoir capacity of eighty million gallons. When the 
fact that the daily consumption of water in Charlotte is about two 
million gallons is considered, it is seen that the water in the reservoir 
will sujiply the city for six weeks in case of droughts, which are 
known to give cities so much trouble. 

The entire City of Charlotte is piped for fire protection, as well as 
for use in business and the home, and throughout the city the pressure 
is all that could be desired. Since the pipe line to the Catawba River, 
eleven miles distance, was laid, thirty-nine thousand dollars was 
spent in extending the city mains to reach sections which up to that 
time had not been properly cared for. Wholesome water in abund- 
ance is to be found in Charlotte by those seeking a business or home 
location. It is one of the city's chief assets. 

The water is furnished to the citizens at a minimum rate of fifty 
cents per month for ordinary consumption and domestic purposes and 
a special low rate for the large consumer for manufacturing purposes. 



